WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a letter to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, a coalition of livestock associations – including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc., the American Meat Institute, the National Chicken Council, the National Meat Assoc., the National Pork Producers Council and the National Turkey Federation – requested a hearing on the Renewable Fuel Standard’s (RFS) impact on the economy.

The groups cited ongoing pressure on domestic feed grain supplies and a discovery of $9 million of fraudulent renewable identification numbers as justifications for a hearing.

“In light of the ongoing pressures that the RFS is placing on the domestic feed grain supplies, something must be done to protect livestock and poultry producers from excessively high corn prices because of the rigid RFS compliance system,” the groups told Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D- Calif.) and Ranking Member James Inhofe (R-Okla.).

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — Jon Corzine told a Congressional panel Thursday he never intended to break rules requiring failed securities firm MF Global to safeguard client funds. He also said he doesn’t know what happened to an estimated $1.2 billion that went missing.

Corzine testified before the House Agriculture Committee for nearly three hours about the firm’s bankruptcy, which followed disastrous bets on European debt that were made while Corzine was CEO. Corzine deflected blame for the company’s collapse. He argued he inherited a firm already doomed by his predecessors’ bad financial decisions.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — An environmental group is suing a pair of Kentucky farmers over subsidies they received for growing corn and soybeans during a two-year period in Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in western Kentucky.

Oregon-based Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics wants a judge to order farmers Kerry Underhill of Cadiz and Bobby Cunningham of Murray to pay between $5,500-$11,000 per day for each day they received subsidies for farming the land without a valid lease from the U.S. Forest Service.

At issue is whether the farmers should have been eligible for subsidies between Jan. 1, 2008-March 19, 2010. The environmental organization said the two had leases with the National Wild Turkey Federation, not the government.

Attempts to reach Underhill and Cunningham were unsuccessful last week.

MENOMINEE, Mich. (AP) — Two Upper Peninsula men have pled guilty to torturing cattle last summer in Menominee County.

Prosecutor Dan Hass told the Daily Press in Escanaba that he got guilty pleas Dec. 5 from 18-year-old Nicholas Leisner and 17-year-old Peter Sauve. Two pregnant heifers were beaten so badly they had to be killed last July.

Leisner and Sauve face a maximum penalty of four years in prison when they’re sentenced on Feb. 6. Charges are pending against a third defendant. The cattle were worth $4,000 each.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam says his administration is working to speed up the environmental permitting system for poultry farms.

The Republican governor said after a speech to the Farm Bureau in Franklin last week that his goal is for the state to strike a balance between environmental stewardship and promoting jobs and production in the agricultural sector.

Agriculture Commissioner Julius Johnson said neighboring states are quicker to grant permits for chicken farms and added he considers it a problem that Tennessee’s rules are slightly stricter than federal standards. Animal waste-handling permits are issued by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and Johnson said he’s been holding discussions with that agency to try to streamline the process.

Poultry is Tennessee’s third largest agricultural product, after cattle and soybeans.